Powerful argument. Derived from erudite observation. Enough.

What is India, or the nation in which I have been a refugee ever since I drew the first blood to survive just as anybody else? and what is it that I think of this nation from my frame of reference? And have I got myself stuck in the thick of things (a stationary observer still thinking myself motionless seeing others doing things) or have been oscillating here and there (myself doing things and thinking others motionless seeing them as stationary ‘objects’)? To arrive at what and how I make of India, I need to describe who I think I am, irrespective of what others think I am (irrespective of whether this plays straight into my assumption that I am either stationary or on the move, but not both simultaneously). With this, I assume now, that I have sufficiently dragged you – assuming there is no air drag on your side – into the world of my parlance, of thinking. And that’s assumed ‘self’. Well, as a matter of fact, this physical body could have been anybody else, more than what appears to be a meagre composite plant of flesh, blood, and bones, all of which have been inter-connected by the back and forth nervous electrical signals (of synapses) to brain. Is there anything else apart from this fact that could have been known of my organic nature? Now, that after I have realized I am only chauffeuring, of not just about myself, but also of visual representations of an India around me – for if the former were much easier than the latter in whatever I do, it would tantamount to making fun of both descriptions, I would now like to make headway against all odds in favour of an image of an India not being made out a case of ‘limitation’ of my judgement. In any case, the description of an image of an India that has been my hood – bearing the brunt of my anger with likeminded, heaving a sigh of relief at rather reluctance whenever I tiptoe likeminded refugees for , adjusting its pride whenever I manufacture opinions with the help of the likeminded majority for achieving the so-called unity in diversity, and last, but not the least, offering me the much needed brotherhood and sisterhood on seeing me weep in dark -

Promise made was necessity of the past మాట ఇవ్వటం అప్పటి అవసరం Word broken is necessity of the present మాట తప్పటం ఇప్పటి అవసరం - Niccolo Machiavelli (called murderous machiavel by William Shakespeare) ‘garibi hathao’ పేదరికాన్ని చంపేద్దాం – Ms. Indira Gandhi, political architect of India’s ambitious nuclear program and credited with disastrous emergency proclamation ‘ache din’ మంచి రోజులు – Mr. Narendra Modi, the chief architect of building Indian skyscrapers using words, an ideal mobile dream developer ‘there is no life without trust; once you start using words to your advantage, you are everything but life’, says Aamani (yes, the Subhalaghnam’s aristocratic wife!) to her son. As a matter of fact, or fiction, any literate in real life – either with a doctorate (Ph.D./D.Sc.) or a master’s program title (M.sc./M.Tech/M.A./MBA/MD/MDS) would have taken above quote from murderous machiavel just as he/she had presumed a delicious ‘garibi hathao’ in 1970s or a soporific ‘ache din’ in 2014. Mahesh Babu (Mr. Bharat Ram) swallows words of her mother to such an extent that they eventually become source of his life – meaningful existence. This is the theme of the ‘would have been’ blockbuster ‘I, Bharat’ or ‘Bharat Ane Nenu’.

Can India win the test series slated to begin on Friday? Can India draw level the series with face-saving performances? Can India break the back of Proteas who showed Indians door in Mumbai in 2015 ODI series? Answers will slowly emanate. If, by any chance, you have missed this write up on India and its batting woes, here is the link to India in Australia 2014-15. 08, January 2018. Oh, yeah. The first answer arrived at the unbelievable moment, when for most Indian illiterates educated with B.Techs and M.Techs and working in PAN-India companies in night shifts it was ‘happy lunch’ hour time. When they descended already the result was there for the taking. Who will take the reality? Harsha Bhogle shied away from discussing the most fanatical of failures from an Indian context - the utter flop shop of India’s Sachin successor Virat Kohli. Media houses like Times Of India and the mother of all analyses – the editorial column either in sports or general section of The Hindu didn’t feel it was necessary to educate the toppers of Indian cricket analysis flying back and forth on ESPNCRICINFO and CRICBUZZ making ridiculous comparisons and treating the game like they do in appraisal meetings which seldom contain any stuff beyond frivolities for munching. The first one, of course, was that of his dismal surrender in the Semi final at SCG against a side which was not quite the side it was under Steve Waugh, the arguable invincible, and under Ponting, the arguable better. As usual, the Indian bowling under MS Dhoni’s stewardship lacked intent to perform on a momentous day. What’s more, they conceded 27 runs to Mitchell Johnson, a bowler who played second fiddle to quality toppers in McGrath, Gillespie, Lee, and even Bracken at times. Douglas Bollinger too played a similar role as that of Mitch. What could have been a score of 300, which might have been a par score considering home advantage for Aussies, suddenly scaled up a bit, eventually making the notion of chasing under lights and that too in a semi final a tough call for the batsmen, whose ranks were without quality of VVS Laxman (why VVS? it’s against Australia!) and Sachin Tendulkar (did he perform when it mattered against McGrath and co. in 1999 Super Six and 2003 Final? no, his quality matters!).

”ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL, BUT SOME ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS”.-Animal Farm (1945) published by George Orwell What’s the discussion about? Is Sachin greater than Bradman? Was Bradman ruthless in his times? Was Richards the fiercest of all in his times? And where does Kohli land? Or precisely, where have the boardroom commentators and illiterates wearing the mask of educated landed Kohli just because he scored plenty on one of the tracks at ADELAIDE OVAL (the other track on the slower side), BELLERIVE OVAL (always better for batsmen), and Indian pitches? Okay, what’s the standard of bowling and how many greats have bowled at his stumps and how many have devised plans using computer graphics? (There’s a legend that Hansie Cronje and Co. used animation to outsmart Sachin). Here comes a piece that breaks spine of ridiculously ignorant and unintentionally absurd think tanks. Where does the answer lie to the second question? Because the first question itself is dependent on the second one. If you say that Sachin is not eligible to become the first ever Indian sportsman to receive BHARAT RATNA, does it mean that Sachin should be awarded BHARAT RATNA after Kapil Dev, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Dilip Vengsarkar, Sania Mirza, PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwal, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Sanjay Manjrekar, Sourav Ganguly, Virender Sehwag, Anil Kumble, Virat Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan, Harsha Bhogle are awarded? Or that Sachin should NOT be awarded at all? What’s myth surrounding Sachin’s century and a necessitated defeat? Is the gain of Sachin meant to provide loss to his team? And, what crime did he commit? HE DID NOT PLAY AS PER YOUR EXPECTATIONS. Right? So, how did he play? Where did he play? When did he play? Now, take a look at scenarios, just when he was in the eighth year of playing for his team, and analyse. Steve Waugh, Dhoni, Ponting, all won the world cups before they reached 10 years of playing. Scenario 1: 1996 Wills World Cup, India v West Indies, Roop Singh Stadium, Gwalior, February 21, Wednesday. India had shown exemplary discipline in containing Caribbean batsmen to shut them down to 173. Chanderpaul and Richie Richardson had tried to build innings who received no support. Srinath had Brian Lara, although the replays showed error of judgement by the on-field umpire. Anil Kumble had struck for India at vital points. India started their innings with Jadeja and Tendulkar but the bowling attack was not an ordinary unit with the likes of Walsh and Ambrose early on with Ian Bishop supporting these lanky pacers in from the other end. Jadeja and Navjyot Sidhu had to go back. Sachin and Azhar built the ship. Sachin had maintained restraint all through his demonstrative knock of 70 off 90 balls and when everything was set for a neat finish Kambli ran him out at around 130. Manoj Prabhakar too left the scene in a manner only he could justify. Of course, India had sailed home. Scenario 2: 1996 Wills World Cup, India v Australia,… Read more

Cheers, Srilanka! You have shown Indian think tank the upcoming picture at Kingsmead in Durban! WAIT, THERE IS NO TEST MATCH AT ST.GEORGE’S PARK IN PORT ELIZABETH OR SPRINGBOK IN BLOEMFONTEIN! TEST MATCHES ARE ONLY THREE IN NUMBER; AS MANY AS THREE T20S ARE SCHEDULED FOR THE SAKE OF ILLITERATE AUDIENCE. శ్రీలంకని ఓ ఆట ఆడుకుందామనుకున్న బోర్డుకి, విశ్రాంతి తీసుకున్న నెపంతో వేడుక చూద్దామనుకున్న ధోని వారసుడికి లంకేయులు ఈడెన్ గార్డెన్సులోనే చేదు గుళికలు తినిపించారు. దానితో కనీసం మిగతా టెస్టుల్లోనైనా పరువు నిలుపుకుందామనుకున్న భారత్ బోర్డు వ్యూహం కాస్తా పక్కకి జరిగింది. ఈడెన్ గార్డెన్సులో లంక వెలుతురులేమి సాయంతో గట్టెక్కిందన్నది వేరే విషయం. ఇదే తరహా జట్టు చేతిలో ఇంగ్లాండ్ పిచ్ మీద భారత్ దారుణ పరాజయం మూట కట్టుకుందన్న విషయాన్ని సాధారణ ప్రేక్షకుడికి గుర్తు చేయాల్సిన పని లేదు. గుర్తుండాల్సిన పని లేదు. ఆ తరహా ప్రేక్షకులు కేవలం ఆటని వినోదంగానే చూస్తారు. వాళ్లందరికి బ్యాటింగంటే కొన్ని సిక్సులు, బౌండరీలు, అప్పుడప్పుడు రనౌట్లు, బౌలింగ్ అంటే వికెట్లు గిరాటేయడం, ఫీల్డింగ్ అంటే సో-కాల్డ్ గాల్లో క్యాచ్లందుకోవడం. ఇంతకీ ఇంత ఉపోద్ఘాతం ఇచ్చాక గుర్తొచ్చి చచ్చిందా? చాంపియన్సు ట్రోఫీలో! Indian captain Virat Kohli will have spun the coin at Newlands in Cape Town on the occasion of New Year’s test match of South Africa. The problem is NOT with the Indian contingent which assembled on Sunday morning at Dharamshala; they looked appalling on a beautiful wicket with plenty of grass. I mean to say this wasn’t something that’s unfamiliar to all those buffs glued to TV. Grass in India was quite a common a sight to all those pundits out there in the middle; I mean to infer, or refer, rather than feel inferior about anything outsmarting any ’ness’ that is suffixed with ‘India’. What do I mean to infer, then? NOT A THING in actuality. This is what ESPN Cricinfo has to say on the below-par performance shortly after the match concluded. ”Lesser-skilled teams’ best chances of competing are in conditions that skew the balance towards the bowlers – spin or seam. In 26 ODIs in 2017, most of which were played on flat surfaces, Sri Lanka managed to win just four. But in Dharamsala, Sri Lanka’s seamers, led by Suranga Lakmal, used swinging and seaming conditions to rip through a tentative India batting line-up for 112, setting up a seven-wicket rout that also snapped their 12-game losing streak in ODIs. When Lakmal finished with figures of 10-4-13-4 to leave India at 29 for 7, it didn’t look like the innings would last 38.2 overs. But MS Dhoni shepherded the tail with a calculated 65 to prevent India from the ignominy of falling to the lowest ODI total. Even though India started well in the defense, their total was decidedly under-par as Sri Lanka hunted down the target with 29.2 overs to spare. In the fresh mountain air of Dharamsala, Sri Lanka’s opening bowlers, Lakmal and Angelo Mathews, repeatedly hit the perfect length: just fuller than good. On a surface with sufficient but not exaggerated lateral movement, that length becomes even harder to negate. Batsmen are indecisive with their footwork and therefore shot selection. Shikhar Dhawan prefers to dominate bowlers from the outset, particularly with cross-batted strokes. He hung back to Mathews, who angled full deliveries away from his… Read more

George Orwell’s Animal Farm(1945) deals with power struggle among animals. Animals confront among themselves with Soviet and German mindsets for starting their own farm. Animal Farm portends an important picture of socialism, one of the elusive forms of human idealism which dictates electioneering debates of even today’s scientifically advanced age. As a matter of fact, socialistic patterns of thoughts form core of almost all human political outfits and, the way George Orwell takes potshot at human political outfits, which necessitated fundamental equality the road to power and made it a mirage thereafter, is beyond measure. George Orwell opines he tried to fuse political and artistic purpose into one whole in this novel. Symbolism/Interpretation and Character analysis of Animal Farm Name and Nature Description Essence Farm buildings Residence of Stalin, Kremlin For sightseeing tours, earlier. Windmill Represents Russian industry Built by the working class Minimus Poetic Pig Writes National Anthems Foxwood Represents England Imperialist, later US’ friend Pinch field Represents Germany Scientifically developed nation Destruction of the Windmill Failure of Five-Year Plan Failure to stick to plans Napoleon Soviet Union Leader STALIN Socialist turned tyrant Old Major Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin Snowball Leon Trotsky Boxer Alexey Stakhanov Hard worker without brain Squealer Pravda /Goebbels Newspaper Media for hiding truth Frederick(human) Represents Adolf Hitler Secret Deals, arrangements Pilkington(human) Capitalist governments of UK Capitalism destroys economies Whymper(human) Capitalist Business with Soviet Jones(human) Former Owner of Farmhouse Lived in luxury, dictator

ART OF WICKET KEEPING Author: Ramachandra Guha (Common for all questions) Focus and focus so that he doesn’t miss a run out, a catch, a stumping chance; he needs to master swear words not contained in Oxford’s dictionary to talk down opposition batsmen; score runs at will in One-Days; encourage his bowlers; must not be disturbed by chances of winning/losing game, cheer team mates when crowds make noise in populous cities like Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Sydney, or Mumbai Who is a wicket keeper from Ramachandra Guha’s words? He is a person having concentration of a heart surgeon; reflexes of a fighter pilot; guts of a boxer physical stamina to do three hundred uttakh-bhaitakhs from knee-bending position in ODIs run 100 meters in less than 11 seconds score quickly, some 33 runs in 10 balls or so; so, it’s easy to be prime minister of a coalition government than it’s to become wicket keeper of Indian team Talk down opposition (criticize and tease batsmen to disturb their concentration-Australians’ technique of sledging); Rodney Marsh was a master wicket keeper-he held word record of catching an egg without breaking it mid-way off the bowling of Dennis Lillee; Ian Healy, Kiran More, Syed Kirmani, and Moin Khan redefined ‘art of wicket keeping’. Indian audience got used to judge and condemn but he must not let that suppress his performance

Single Question on The Gold Frame – Paragraphs 2,3,4,5,6,8,9 Question on Character of Datta – Paragraphs 2,3,4,6,8,10 Question on Character of Customer – Paragraphs 2,5,6,9,10 Question on work of R.K. Laxman – Paragraphs 1,2,3,4,5,10 1 The title of the essay THE GOLD FRAME is apt as it makes fun of highly opinionated middle class stuck in the medley of status. What faith gets better than faith embossed with gold? This is the theme of the present story written by R.K.Laxman, who was sibling of R.K.Narayan, a talisman of his kind in Indian short stories. 2 THE GOLD FRAME is an essay written by R.K. Laxman. Like in many of his witty novels, R.K. Laxman uses his flair for commentary here as well for visualizing emotions of an ordinary photo frame maker Datta and a customer. Datta turns catastrophic moment into moment of triumph with sheer presence of mind. The essay deals with the way (manner in which) average minds of Indian middle class treat among themselves. As with the title, the Noun ‘’Gold’’ is apt because many middle-class households consider the yellow metal prestigious. Until the day of reckoning turns up, readers get a hint of a win-win situation for both Datta and the customer, but with foolishness of customer Datta holds his nerve for the last laugh. The story is an eye-opener in a sense as people can easily get flummoxed in their pursuit of looking affluent. 3 The story opens up with the unveiling of the character of Datta, owner of The Modern Frameworks, which is an extra-large wooden packing case, decked between a radio repair shop and a drug store. Datta is a silent and a hardworking man who gives laconic answers even to the desirous few. He immerses himself so deep in work that he doesn’t have sparing time to orderly arrange scattered pieces of cardboard, glue bottles, glass, to name a few, all lying in his vicinity. In such a medley, created by Datta himself, he often loses sight of pencil stub for making marks on card board. Understandably, he searches everywhere around him before shaking his dhoti in the hunt for pencil stub. This, in the words of R.K. Laxman, is the ultimate operation that often shakes the entire shop setting photo frames on walls in motion. 4 Workmanship of Datta as portrayed by R.K. Laxman offers sarcasm, and provides us with a hint where we can relate to Datta in our day-to-day lives; unfurling of dhoti in search of a lost object is a classic example. Description of various photo frames, of Gods, sages, hockey players, all waiting for Datta’s attention is yet another that cuts ice with commoners. His workaholic mind costs him peace of mind as his customer is hell bent on getting a resplendent oval cut mount frame imported from Germany for seventeen rupees. 5 Attitude of the customer as portrayed by R.K. Laxman offers us fun, especially his behaviour to sound like an affluent man. His redundant slip of… Read more